Extenuating Circumstances
by VitalEmployee
Summary: My first non-poem entry, the plot is thus: A Celedon City bakery owner has never trained pokemon, but will a little red pokemon start him off?
1. Early Morning

I was flying…no…more like floating in a sea of flames. But I wasn't afraid of them; they were gentle and soothing, like a hearth fire. I was warm, relaxed, and happy. Then grim reality struck. A sharp buzz intruded on my dream and the flames drifted away. I wanted them to come back, but to no avail.

I sighed, rolled over and fumbled with my alarm clock for a minute before I found the power button and shut it off. I lay in bed for a minute before groggily opening my eyes. I blearily surveyed the place that had become a home to me in the last year. It was a modest flat, perfect for a 19 year-old entrepreneur to reside in comfortably. It was a bit cluttered, however. No, cluttered wasn't the word. Untidy. Disorganized. Downright messy. All of these would be a suitable description of my living space. I was a bachelor, what do you expect?

I stumbled to the bathroom to brush my teeth before work. I had decided to eat when I got to work, so when I was finished, I jammed a beanie over my curly blonde hair that was as "cluttered" as my room. As I headed toward the door, I tripped over a rouge pokeball lying on the floor. Cursing silently, I picked myself off the floor and made a mental note to clean it up later. After staring at it for a second, I picked it up and pocketed it. Let's face it, I wouldn't remember later. I had never been really into pokemon, and had gotten the ball in a pack of six from an acquaintance at a recent Christmas party. I sighed again._ Wow, I'm doing a lot of sighing today. Maybe it's an omen…_ I thought. _Yep, today's gonna be a bad day…_ I finally reached the door of my flat without further incident, and started down the stairs. The familiar smells of the bakery I lived above and owned greeted me, bringing a small smile to my face, and my mood lifted a little. _Well, maybe not so bad._


	2. A day in the life

AN- I don't own Pokemon, however I DO own Ken, Sy, Sy's father, and several new Pokemon attacks that you will see popping up soon.

Enjoy!!! ~ Vital

As I descended down the stairs, my stomach rumbled. _I hope we're not out of bagels…again…_Automatically, I turned on the oven and lights, then switched on the cash register. I would open the bakery up when the oven got hot, but while that was going on, I put on a pot of coffee, and grabbed a bagel and a croissant. The bagels were bought wholesale from some large conglomerate, but I made the croissants myself. I was happy to see it didn't look like I'd need to order more bagels for a while, and I smiled again.

I finished off the bagel and croissant when I noticed a familiar face outside the window. It was one of my regulars, an early riser named Sylvester who managed to appear at the bakery at least an hour before we opened. Sy was the closest thing I had to a friend, even if he did end up wasted every other night, so of course I let him in. "Thanks Ken…" he mumbled "Met this girl last night…was up real late…gotta major headache…can I have some aspirin and coffee?" I shook my head in amusement, and looked at him. "Yeah, yeah, you're just lucky I'm such a softie, or I'd make your life difficult." I poured him a cup of coffee, and rummaged behind the counter for the aspirin "So dude, tell me about this girl…"

Aside from Sy showing up, the rest of the day went by pretty quickly. The girl Sy was talking about was a down-on-her-luck 28 year-old aspiring artist. She was in a bad mood and needed someone to get drunk with her, and Sy was in the right place at the right time. As I thought about this, I guess it worked out. Sy was a 24 year-old aspiring store chain owner. One of the reasons I tolerated Sy was that when he wasn't drunk, stoned, or otherwise plastered, he was a very funny person who had good intentions, just no self control. The other was that his father owned the Celedon City PokeMart and was one of the richest and most respected men in the city. Sy would have taken over a long time ago if he wasn't such an abuser.

Thanks to how well I tolerated Sy, he considered me Sy's friend and let me order all my baking supplies through him. This was helpful because Sy's father got me a lot of supplies for a small amount of money.

As mentioned, the day went by rather fast, and since I had netted quite a few customers, I decided to take the next day off and not open. It WAS Saturday, after all.


End file.
